A mob tried to attack Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh's empty ancestral house on the outskirts of the state capital Imphal tonight. The incident happened despite a security clampdown in the valley. Security forces successfully pushed back the mob after firing in the air.
The Manipur Police posted on X (formerly Twitter) that reports of the Chief Minister's personal house "being mobbed are false and misleading".
Mr Singh lives in a separate, well-guarded official home in the centre of Imphal.
"There was an attempt to attack the Chief Minister's ancestral house at Heingang locality in Imphal. Security forces stopped the mob around 100-150 metres away from the house," a police officer told news agency PTI.
Nobody stays in the house, though it too is guarded round-the-clock, the officer said.
"Two groups of people came from different directions and approached the Chief Minister's ancestral house, but they were stopped," he said.
Several rounds of tear gas shells were fired by the Rapid Action Force (RAF) and state police personnel to disperse the mob. The authorities switched off the electricity connection in the entire area to reduce visibility and make it hard for the protesters to proceed. They installed more barricades near the house.
The protesters also burnt tyres on a nearby road. Ambulances were seen, though no reports have come of injuries.
Today late-night incident happened a day after protests by students over the killing of two teens, allegedly by insurgents.
Numerous students started marching in Imphal city on Wednesday morning, shouting slogans against what they called was the Manipur government's inexplicable delay in bringing normalcy in the state and failure to arrest the killers of the two students, whose bodies were seen slumped on a hill in a leaked photograph.
Many of the students, who were hospitalised on Wednesday, said the Manipur Police and the central paramilitary Rapid Action Force (RAF) came in full force against them with lathis, rubber bullets and tear gas.
The police denied the allegations by the students. They said the students attacked them with sharp projectiles and the mob would have become destructive if action was delayed. Police sources released photos showing metal parts that they alleged were thrown at them by the students.
BJP MLA Rajkumar Imo Singh posted on X the state government has formed a committee to investigate alleged excesses committed by the security forces on students.
"Due to excess use of force by the armed forces in the last few days, state government has initiated a committee which will be led by IGP Administration Manipur to take action against any personnel involved for any excess committed. Strict action should be taken against any of these officials involved so that such acts are not repeated," the MLA, who is also the son-in-law of the Chief Minister, said in a post on X.
A mob also vandalised the deputy commissioner's office in Imphal West district and set on fire two vehicles this morning.
Manipur has been on the boil since May 3 when ethnic violence broke out between the hill-majority Kukis and valley-majority Meiteis over the Meiteis' demand for Scheduled Tribes (ST) status.
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